Customer Reviews

Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was a very well-written book, very close to accounts of those times in Osage country that I've heard from other Osage families. Dennis starts off his book as a typical middle-class white American, just researching old family stories and geneology. He begins to see things as an Indian, and realizes that his grandmother was one of the thousands of Indian victims of greed here in Oklahoma. Her murder, like so many others, was virtually ignored by the world. On several levels, his family story is the story of Indian Oklahoma. I applaud Dennis for his courage to continue his research, and to write the truth!

I originally bought this book because I thought it sounded like an interesting fiction. It quickly became obvious that it wasn't a fictional story at all, but rather another atrocity in American history that is only known through rumors and campfire stories. This book is a expert mix of personal obstacles for the author and unbiased historical documentation of an Osage tribe and its gift/curse of oil wealth. I doubt many people are strangers to the tales of Native abuses by whites, but I've asked many people if they've ever heard of the Osage murders at the turn of the century when oil was struck on their land. None had. This is a wonderfully wrought piece. I recommend it to anyone with a flare for history, the glorified as well as the darker chapters.

I read this book with my book club members which culminated with a "speakerphone chat" with the author. I must say that this was a wonderful and powerful novel that gets the reader thinking. I am not an Indian, and I am ashamed to say I had no idea about the Reign of Terror or the prejudices felt by Indians of any tribe. This book opened my eyes. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this true murder mystery was going to turn out. In the meantime, I got an awesome history lesson that I will never forget.

This was a very riveting book. I wasn't too sure how much I'd enjoy it when I started. . . it seemed at first like the author was simply out to trash white people. Maybe that was my own guard going up. . . I don't know.

Regardless, this turned out to be a very good book. The author finds out late in life that his grandmother committed suicide. As he investigates his family history, it turns out she was murdered, instead.

This all happened in the "Reign of Terror," a time back in the 1910's and 1920's in which literally hundreds of Osage Indians were murdered for their land and money (they had recently become quite rich because of the discovery of oil). McAullife's grandmother was caught up in this terrible tragedy.

At times I found it hard to follow who the author was talking about. Fortunately, the front of the book contains the author's family tree--this was very useful at times in helping me figure out who was related to whom.

This book tells about a shameful time during our state's (and nation's) history. It is worth reading, if for no other reason that we won't repeat our mistakes.

Chronicling the Osage Reign of Terror through fiction, as Linda Hogan did exquisitely in Mean Spirit, or factually, as Lawrence Hogan attempted reasonably well in The Osage Indian Murders, is an entirely different effort from telling the true story of your own family, as Dennis McAuliffe succeeded in doing beautifully with Bloodland. Woven into the threads of the story of his Osage grandmother's brutal murder at the hands of her own white stepfather is his own experience of claiming his rightful place in the tribe and passing that proud legacy on to his own son. Contrary to what earlier reviewers have implied, it is completely possible to mourn the loss of a grandparent that you never knew, and that loss becomes even more poignant in its senselessness. Mr. McAuliffe's work tells a story within a story. It is first of all a well-researched documentary of a period in history for which this nation has much to answer. It is also the journal of a period in the author's own life during which he came to discover who he is and what of himself he will give to his child. As an adult who was adopted, I can relate to his occassional silliness as he tries to get a job using his minority "blood quantum" status as well as his more serious and reflective awareness of everything coming together and finally making sense. If you are interested in researching the history of the Osages, there are probably many books that will give you "just the facts." Bloodland will show you not only how those facts impacted on the people who lived them, but also how the events continue to resonate in the lives of those folks several generations removed.

I read this book with my book club members which culminated with a "speakerphone" chat with the author. I must say that this was a wonderful and powerful novel that gets the reader thinking. I am not an Indian, and I am ashamed to say I had no idea about the Reign of Terror or the prejudices felt by Indians of any tribe. This book opened my eyes. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how this true murder mystery was going to turn out. In the meantime, I got an awesome history lesson that I will never forget.

I was delighted to find this book on the market. I lived in Osage County for 18 months in the late 1950's. I was in the oil business and supervised drilling wells and producing properties all over the the County(Reservation). I heard many oral reports of how the Osages were miss treated, especially in the teens and the 1920's. I visited the Osage Agency offices in Pawhuska from time to time. I now appreciate the beauty of the countryside and the intelligence of the Osage Tribe. I think Mr McAulffe did an outstanding job in researching his grandmother's life and reviewing the history of the Osage Tribe in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. I made friends with the Osages I met and understand, by having known them, what it means to be an Osage. Mr. McAuliffe made it plain why this Tribe became wealthy through their negotiating skills with the The Great White Father's agents. I understand why Mr. McAuliff is proud to be an Osage.

This is a very through accounting of the Osage murders. It details how
people of the tribe were swindled out of their oil money murdered, and how it all happened.

Although this book brings an excellent historical perspective (of a tragic period in the Osage history) to its readers, the author should have refrained from giving the book a "Dances With Wolves" feel when talking about his new-found identity as an Osage Indian. I found it particularly out-of-place when the author says he, "as a white man", used (or I believe abused) his piece of Indian heritage to try to get a job. Unfortunately, his tone at the beginning of the book turned me off to the rest (and subsequently best part!!)

As a person who works with Native American tribes, I am routinely asked which tribal histories are the most interesting. I often recommend researching the story of the Osage. However, I will not recommend Dennis McAuliffe's Bloodland. McAuliffe takes a great story, his Osage grandmother's tragic and suspicious death at a young age, and soils it with a campaign to prove to all of us that he is Indian. Instead of letting the reader determine if he is Indian (the book is all about his family history), McAuliffe further embarrasses himself by telling us he is as Indian as his grandmother's grandmother. The author reaches for any sign of his "lost ancestry" by tying some cosmic meaning every event in his life, even including his bout with alcoholism. McAuliffe claims "I hadn't always been an Indian" but he sure was Indian when he was unemployed and attempted to land a job using his tribal enrollment card (or when marketing this book). Perhaps Dennis McAuliffe Jr. should have chosen a more suitable title such as "I am not an Indian but I claim to be one when it is auspicious to me". Additionally, I thought that the organization was wrong for this type of the story. Perhaps, he relied too much on his background as a newspaper journalist. Within the first few chapters, the author exposed the murderer, motive for the murder and, regrettably, the subplot of informing the reader that, despite his blue eyes and blond hair and never living in Indian Country, he is the second coming of Chief White Hair. Thus, there was little incentive to read the rest of the book. If I didn't have such a strong interest in the Osage tribe, I would not have finished it. Furthermore, McAuliffe offered no original insight into the great culture, history and tradition of the Osage. Everything he offered on the Osages, was common knowledge to anyone moderately familiar with Osage history. I will continue to recommend reading about the Osage Tribe, but I will suggest avoiding Dennis McAuliffe's Bloodland.